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ACT Government signs the blank cheque

The Chiefly Stanhope has improved his chances of becoming Ambassador Stanhope by signing us all up to Kevin’s back of the envelope health plan.

Canberra’s public hospitals will be better off by around $150 million over the next decade, with Chief Minister Jon Stanhope today announcing he would sign up to the Prime Minister’s health funding reforms at a meeting of heads of government on Monday.

It’d be nice if the public had the information to make a judgment or a say, but realistically scrapping the ACT’s health administration would be a beautiful thing.

A national health administration would also end the massive freeloading of Queanbeyan and surrounds on our health dollars.

ACT GST revenues are about $1bn. 30% (or is it one third? – press reports seem to say both) of that is about $300/330m pa. The Health budget is about $1bn, and the hospital component is about 80% of that. ie $800m. The Feds currently cough up about 30% of those costs. ie $240m (excluding the one-off sweetners that, to be honest rarely ever get to safe Labor electorates like the ACT, but are none the less worth something). So on face value the Feds, under Rudd’s plan, get to scam us to the tune of about $60-90m a year.

And that’s without any extra money going into ACT hospitals. At least until 2014.

As a way to try to seal this the Feds have offered (here and there) about %50-60m p.a. to the ACT get us o board. So we’d appear to come out of this pretty well, or do we?

To confuse this furhter the bulk of the Fed’s 60%” (really just forgone ACT GST revenue)is capped, but the ACT’s 40% isn’t. If hospital costs go beyond a determined (by Rudd) cost then the ACT has to make up the difference. All of this in a system the ACT has no control over.

If this is ‘health reform’, I’ll eat Rudd’s dog.

There might however be something in all of this that makes sense to the ACT, and that is related to the cross-border deal with the NSW Govt. If the Feds pick up 60% of those costs that might just deliver a small win to the ACT, at least as far as that part of our health budget is concerned.

If I were Stanhope I wouldn’t have gone for a stroll in the park with Rudd last weekend, I’d have told him to eat his dog – and then see if we could get a deal we can truely afford to sign up to.

I’ve no involvement in any of this, but it doesn’t look like a “blank cheque” to me. Rates of increase in the costs of health will see the health budget swallowing the capacity of State and Territory budgets to cover those costs if the current cost share arrangements continue. Yep, there are new money needs now, but the big problem is the medium and long term consequences of current trends.

Hmm a health plan that is light on details but almost assuredly includes another layer of government/public servants/pen pushers in between. And its going to solve the world! And all we need to do is re-elect Kevin twice more……

I wonder how Katy feels and saying for weeks that she would need more info before signing our lives away, only to have chairman stanhopeless sign us up over one brekky meeting. Toes trampled on much?

Personally, I have no confidence in krudd’s plans, given they don’t even know how it will work, that they’re bribing states to take part and the only program they’ve been able to successfully implement in the last 3 years is the breakfast to decide on all their rubbish policies.

I was pretty happy when Kevin07 was elected. I really liked his statements about open and accountable government, and was ecstatic about a focus on evidence-based policy.

And jeepers, have I been disappointed!

In Kevin for not doing more to ensure his government lived up to his rhetoric. And if the reports are true, now in the (previously awesome!) Katy in signing up to a health plan that no-one has the full detail of.

ACT shouldn’t agree to a plan without seeing all of it. And ACT shouldn’t ‘sign on’ without knowing what the Rudd Government response to the Henry tax review. $150 million may be exceptionally low value if the GST rules are changed in the next few years.

If Katy is certain this Kevin health plan is a good thing, SHOW ME THE MATH! Especially when the Kevin health plan DOES NOT ‘end the blame game’ There is no material structural reform. It’s solving some short-term financial issues and grabbing a couple of headlines.

COAG members, please reject the proposed health plan. Kevin, please take this issue to referendum (if you know what the question is!).

This issue is too important to rely on a weekend’s analysis of incomplete detail before a COAG meeting.

Honestly it is like Kevin Rudd is still making policies from opposition. Flashy sounding headlines ‘free private treatment for those who wait too long’ etc, but no actual plans on how to help hospitals clear their waiting lists.

Hasnt’t he penny dropped yet that they have to actually make these big plans happen, not just make them sound good as ‘annoucibles’.

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